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We live in the islands of the Caribbean - a place where people come to relax and recoup. Yet there's an alarming reality of the people who actually live here. We're too stressed!

What do I mean?

Let's break it down into groups of people living in the Caribbean. You will realize that though we live here, it can only be classified as an existence; bearing little resemblance to what others envisage as the lifestyles we experience.

There's something about the islands, that people of other lands would classify us as rich. Yet we don't see ourselves that way. Is it that we take too much for granted? Too many of us don't know how to swim. We only know the route to and from work. We don't get to visit our family, and nowadays don't even know the younger and older members of the family.

The islands are expensive. Living in the islands requires money and know how. If you have little money, you better have know how, since these skills are necessary to eke out a…

Nowadays, it seems that everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. It doesn't help that governments seem to be fuelling this trend in order to justify their employment statistics either. What's happening though is that entrepreneurs don't want to work with others in many instances since they want to be the boss and not be accountable to anyone else. It's a recipe for disaster and failure.

There's a need for accountability, and that doesn't mean giving up control; though it may mean you don't exercise full ownership any longer. Here are some of the common thoughts being touted by many entrepreneurs - in raw unpolished form:

They want the investors money but not their input; so the investor should put their money in and just disappear until it's near repayment time. Staff don't need to be paid well, their work is not that valuable as running a business. Who gets the headaches at night trying to keep this business afloat?Customer better take what we're …

When you're doing business for any length of time, it's easy for some things to fall through cracks. What do I mean?

You deviate from your planned/established proceduresDamaging behaviours creep in, especially when taken for granted that it's a one off experience Your systems are not really systems, only an ad hoc set of behaviours clumped together
What do you do? You will feel overwhelmedYou will experience the frustration of not truly making progress Stress levels will increase in all facets of your life - you get the picture
STOP AND TAKE STOCK Examine what you're doing and the results you're getting Identify where changes need to be made; get help if you need toMake the changes, and then evaluate to see if they're working
Here's what you'll find You may become more organized achieving more in less timeYour stress levels will declineYou will feel more in control of what you're doing and what you wish to achieve Ever so slight, you'll start to…

One thing's for certain. If you're in business long enough you will have some challenges. You may encounter professional and personal challenges, but they all affect some of the circumstances within your business.

How are you doing business wise / personally?

Often times we are caught up in the busyness of our business. This activity becomes so routine and automatic that planning goes out the window and oftentimes we feel like we're on the treadmill - lots of activity but not covering any real ground. Progress seems to be in the far distance and success still farther away.

Getting sick is not necessarily a bad thing. It forces you to stop and think. You question yourself about your current lot / place in life. Depending on who you are you'll have various questions that apply to you. After some pondering, you tend to decide on a course of action and take it.

You realize that you knew the answers all along. You just never had the opportunity to stop and address your per…